Port Royal, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Port Royal, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Port Royal lot. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Port Royal — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Port Royal — the short answer
Port Royal, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 7a, about 212 days between hard freezes, across 385 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~212
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 385 acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 7a is Port Royal's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Port Royal's 212-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Port Royal
Each reading below is measured for Port Royal itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPort Royal runs about 212 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredPort Royal sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
The kind of country Port Royal is in
Port Royal sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Port Royal's own centroid rather than borrowed from Juniata County.
What Grows in Port Royal
Every plant below cleared Port Royal's own zone 7a and its 212-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Port Royal?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 3 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Port Royal
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Port Royal, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Port Royal
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Port Royal. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PORT ROYAL SPEEDWAYUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- FIKES TIRE CTRUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- JUNIATA SR 75 - PORT ROYAL TRUSSBrownfields · 650 ft
- PORT ROYALUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- POINT SVC STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- WERTS GEN STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- TOWN LANE I APT BLDGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- PLEASANT VIEW STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- TAYLOR SVC CTRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- JAMES H HOSLERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- JUNIATA SR 76 SEGMENT 0620 BRIDGE REPAIRBrownfields · 1400 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR STORE NO 11312Brownfields · 1900 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Port Royal's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Port Royal.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Port Royal
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Port Royal
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Port Royal, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Port Royal — CAFO (12 sites) and Nitrate (74 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Port Royal
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Port Royal average
Your land is one point inside Port Royal
Everything above resolves to Port Royal as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 385 acres. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at town scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better local average.
Your Lot vs the Port Royal Average
Port Royal Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Port Royal
- ●One soil character for all of Port Royal
- ●Frost dates read at Port Royal's scale: Apr 5 to Nov 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Port Royal's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Port Royal
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Port Royal, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Port Royal averages can't show:
We read public map data around Port Royal — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Port Royal average
How we know this about Port Royal
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Port Royal’s own record; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Port Royal
When does frost risk typically end in Port Royal?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Port Royal typically lands around Apr 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about Apr 26.
When is the first frost in Port Royal?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Port Royal typically arrives around Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 20, so the watching starts about Oct 4 — about 212 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Port Royal?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Port Royal sees about 212 frost-free days — roughly Apr 5 through Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 26 to Oct 20, about 177 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Port Royal?
The federal record around Port Royal is a meaningful one — 206 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (94), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Port Royal?
From about Oct 4 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Nov 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Nov 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Port Royal's scale — its 7a band and its 212-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Port Royal's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Port Royal’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Port Royal's own scale — its own ~212-day season between 28°F freezes, the 385 acres it covers and 206 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Port Royal's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Port Royal's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 5 and Nov 3 and the ~212-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 206 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Port Royal, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Port Royal's boundary and the 385 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~212-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Port Royal's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Port Royallydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Port Royal's 385 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Juniata County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Juniata County
- The growing challenges every Pennsylvania grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Pennsylvania
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Juniata County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Port Royal's 385 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Port Royal you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 385 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Port Royal-wide figureread your own land →
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